lisa morgan

The start of a new calendar year is a pretty standard time to take a step back and review the last 12 months, but as the clock ticked over and took us from 2009 to 2010 all I could say was 'thank god that's over'.

2009 was a tough year for me, causing me to visit all sorts of dark places I don't enjoy going.  Due to injury I spent a total of 7 months out of training, most of it literally off the bike or riding only 20-30 minutes a day.  And just as things were starting to come right and I was feeling fit and strong I was sent kicking and screaming back to the start again.  It was like a game of snakes and ladders where there were more snakes than ladders, and the ladders all seemed to have broken rungs.  I just couldn't get a break! (until the suspected fracture that put my right arm in a cast).

At the time I tried to ignore the big picture and just focus on each day, whether that meant taking it in stride that I needed time to heal my body on that particular day, or cramming in as much as my body could take to try and make up for lost time.  Neither is an ideal situation and at times I walked a fine line, finishing off the year by tipping over and having to withdraw in the 2nd stage of Tour de Femme after improving again on my hill climb time.  Despite being completely gutted, in some ways it seemed a fitting end to the year. 

Now, with another short break behind me and a review of the best strategies to achieve my goals for this year, I've had a chance to look back at the big picture and agree with all those people that said I'd been really unlucky.  2009, for all intents and purposes, became a year that wasn't - and one I hope never to repeat!

On the bright side I had free time to watch things like the Tour de France and learn a whole lot more about the pro-peleton to be able to appreciate that type of racing (I'm completely hooked as a spectator now), and I have a whole lot of extra career-skills in my bag of tricks having had time to devote to learning.  But all in all it wasn't a good year.  It wasn't my year.  And I hope I can now do what needs to be done and leave it in the past and focus on 2010.

The first thing I've done is withdraw from a couple of the earlier races to give myself more time for quality training building up to the national champs.  Trying to cram training in has led to a feeling of a shallow base in the past - and we all know what happens when your foundations are shakey.  So I'm limiting the racing this summer (summer?  5 sunny days in 20 does not a summer make!) and we'll see what comes out of that.  I'm planning some international racing and have shifted the focus to that, but you'll have to stay tuned for more info on that later :o)

So for now - cheers to 2010.  Still rollin' - still ridin' hard.